Hicks said he was injured on Oct. 26 in a 42-21 win over Arlington Lamar, but that he didn’t do the most damage until two weeks later in a 44-26 loss to Arlington Bowie.

“The coach said that I was making a cut and then somebody hit my leg as I was making the cut,” said Hicks, who rushed for 139 yards and two scores in the victory over Lamar. “I just thought I had a deep thigh bruise. I didn’t think there was anything to it. So I finished the Lamar game, but I finished it kind of limping.

“Then in the Bowie game, it was close to halftime, and they threw a route to me. It was about to be intercepted so I became the defender to bat it down and I came down on my left leg, and my knee buckled wrong.”

Hicks had an MRI done the following day and the results revealed a torn ACL and meniscus. He’ll have surgery on Dec. 4 and will be in rehab for six months. That will give him about a month to increase training before he’ll join Texas for fall camp in August.

“I’m OK. I feel like I can battle back through it,” he said. “I look at it as I am getting all of my injuries out of the way right now so hopefully I won’t have any more injuries.”

Because of his injury, Hicks was unable to play in Martin’s bi-district round game against Southlake Carroll in Cowboys Stadium, a game the Warriors lost 65-7.

“It was sickening [not being able to play],” Hicks said. “You always want to finish the game with your team. To just sit there and watch your team get beat, knowing that you couldn’t do anything about that, it’s sickening.”

It was last year, during the third round of the playoffs, where Hicks’ toughness really came to light. He broke his foot on the first play of Martin’s game against Euless Trinity but continued to play and ended the game with 20 carries for 113 yards and a 19-yard game-clinching touchdown.

There’s a frustration within Hicks that he wasn’t able to help the Warriors get back to that point this season, but he has peace of mind knowing that Texas will still honor his scholarship.

“I called [Major Applewhite] and told him everything that happened,” Hicks said. “I don’t know. He was just like ‘We feel the same about you, still want you and still have a scholarship.’ It made me happy. I was kind of scared to hear what they had to say at first. So hearing that made me feel good. I just have to battle back and get ready to play there."

Hicks will arrive in Austin as a running back, who will have a better understanding of the game due to his time spent at quarterback this season. Hicks had to step in at quarterback for Martin this season and fared well. He threw for 458 yards and six touchdowns without throwing an interception. But his bread and butter was still the run, which he did 177 times to the tune of 1,113 yards and 22 touchdowns.